Samsung Fires Its First NVDIMM Shot At 3D XPoint

[It's me!]

Definitely interesting to see how Samsung is doing this. I wonder how they will handle the SSDs though?

 

Intel teased the world recently with a glimpse of its latest 3D XPoint NVDIMMs, but many in the industry view the Intel solution with dismay due to rampant speculation it will employ a proprietary interface. Micron and AgigA Tech recently announced a partnership that focuses on traditional DDR4 NVDIMMs, and the platform will expand to include 3D XPoint NVDIMMs in the future.

 

Samsung has not announced a competing non-volatile memory, so it (and others) have to formulate a strategy to counter Intel/Micron's 3D XPoint advantage. This investment may be its first move.

 

Samsung Partners With Netlist, Fires Its First NVDIMM Shot At 3D XPoint

[patrickjp93]

Let's be honest. 3DXPoint will be exotic even to datacenters for several years. A proprietary connector isn't the end of the world. I'm sure Intel won't be using it in workstation machines for at least 6 years. JEDEC has plenty of time to come up with a competitor. The first to the field shall reap the spoils of victory. JEDEC has become increasingly a circle jerk trying to take down the old guard (Intel, Micron, Elpida) and a monkey wrench in the gears of innovation. If it can't keep up with Intel, it should disband and let individual companies compete on their own merits.

[captain cactus]

Honestly, why give a damn about new connectors. If you wanna move forward with technology you have to change a connector at some point and stop supporting older boards/cards/etc. The need for backwards compatibility has to stop at some point.

[patrickjp93]

Honestly, why give a damn about new connectors. If you wanna move forward with technology you have to change a connector at some point and stop supporting older boards/cards/etc. The need for backwards compatibility has to stop at some point.

AMEN!

 

PCIe 4 is moving to being optical for Christ's sake, and after that they'll have to make a new connector. The design is just completely outdated.

[It's me!]

The fact that Samsung is investing in a competing technology is very telling - they obviously see the threat from 3D XPoint. 

[qwertywarrior]

why a proprietary interface ?

if they do that then they are gonna shoot them selves in the foot

[It's me!]

The connection is JEDEC standard, but the software is what is proprietary. 

[patrickjp93]

why a proprietary interface ?

if they do that then they are gonna shoot them selves in the foot

It's going to enterprise first on Intel server motherboards. No foot shooting involved. Consumers won't have any need or demand of it for at least half a decade. Intel can open it up to JEDEC af that point after having made its riches and its reputation. Intel leads the charge, as usual... It would be nice if Samsung quit complaining and actually did something innovative outside ARM.

[It's me!]

I think Samsung will soon release its own competing memory, it has been developing vertical ReRam for quite some time. 

[patrickjp93]

I think Samsung will soon release its own competing memory, it has been developing vertical ReRam for quite some time. 

The problem with memristors lays in their rapid degradation, an order of magnitude faster than NAND flash. I doubt Samsung is anywhere closer to fixing that issue than MIT and IBM are.

[LukaP]

The problem with memristors lays in their rapid degradation, an order of magnitude faster than NAND flash. I doubt Samsung is anywhere closer to fixing that issue than MIT and IBM are.

id wager otherwise. Not because samsung is some great scientific company (they are), or because theit RND budget is bigger then some countries entire budgets (it is), but simply because their biggest product is memory, and developing new tech for the company wont exactly be a very public process. when they are a year or so from release, we will hear of it and no sooner

[It's me!]

I could not possibly agree more. Samsung doesn't announce anything until a few months, at the absolute most, before it ships. They will announce when it rolls out the door.